Our DIY Desk

I remember all the desks I’ve sat at over the years in the same misty-eyed way that some people remember old boyfriends. Maybe it’s a “writer thing”. There was the battered school desk covered in graffiti that I ended up with in my second year of UNI (Oh God, I loved that desk) – my 3am spaghetti hoops dining table and the spot where I wrote seriously awful “Fic” in-between essays on New Screen Technologies (Touch Screen, it’s gonna be huge!). Then there was the little writing desk I inherited off my Mum and Dad for our “Room of Requirement” in our London Flat (our laundry/guest room/study/messy room) – I wrote two books and organised a wedding at that desk… and managed to burn the wall with a candle. Oops.

I guess my point is that desks are one of those memorable pieces of furniture where a lot of important things happen. Our new desk was inherited from Sunny’s Nan who passed away a couple of years ago. It’s an old bench-style dining table made of pine that Sunny’s Dad used as a desk when he was at UNI and then became a dining table again in Sunny’s Nan’s kitchen. Now it’s ours, and has had a mini makeover and returned to its first job as a desk 🙂

Sunny carefully took it all apart and sanded it down (getting rid of all the kitchen grime and old varnish), and then painted it white. It’s not perfect, it wobbles a little and the paint’s a little patchy in places – but it’s a great desk. Since I spend a lot (A LOT) of time at the computer and Sunny works from home at least once a week, it’s nice to have a room and a space purely for work.

To protect the surface we bought a clear, plastic surface from IKEA (I can’t remember exactly what it was called, but it was mega cheap). This tearaway list pad is from Homesense (Homesense Stationary is AWESOME). The rocks are from Llantwit Major (shhh…) and make great paperweights, and the Votes for Women picture was another Homesense find – It’ll probably end up on the wall at some point in a frame.

Here’s one of my favourite things; a little silver plated hand clip that’s perfect for holding important messages. I saw it in a tiny shop in Bath and fell in love with it – so Sunny bought it for me for Christmas.

Hi, I'm Nia. Welcome to The Cardiff Cwtch! I'm a writer who's always making a mess in the kitchen and forever lugging around a camera with my pup Bungle in tow. I blog about life in and around Cardiff, Wales. ♥